Monday, June 25, 2012

by Mira Luna
6/25/2012
I can't tell you how inspiring it has been to be an organizer for the new sharing, alternative economy, whatever you want to call it. I also can't tell you how hard it's been trying to get the resources to get projects off the ground. Often the best grassroots-led sharing economy projects don't get funded, while sharing economy businesses and traditional nonprofits that feed into the old economic paradigm do get funded. For more info, read "The Revolution Will Not Be Funded." Many of these projects challenge the source of the money they are asking for and many fall outside of conventional funding categories that are made to put band aids on social and environmental problems and tend to keep the poor, poor.
Kickstarter and Indigogo are great platforms for grassroots funding, but they require some marketing skills, an already big reach or small but relatively rich supporter base, an established project and usually video skills to pitch their project - beyond many nascent groups' capacities. Network organizations like the US Solidarity Economy Network provide good organizing and strategic help to grassroots work but don't have the funding to support grassroots work either, much less their own work. Slow Money has created a good model for grassroots investing, but the project has to provide a return.
Wouldn't it be awesome to have a crowd-funded, member-run co-op foundation to strategically give funding to innovative grassroots economic projects with possible replication potential and record, research, and publish their challenges and successes? The foundation could keep tabs on the movement, fund conventionally unfundable new projects and provide an information sharing platform or technical assistance help like learning circles for similar projects needing intense start-up support.
The foundation would be structured as a coop. Each person/member who donated any money on an annual basis would be able to vote on which projects gets funded that year. All of the grantee selection process and nominations for funding would be transparent. I would call it "Our Shared Future Fund". Any takers?

From Burlington Free Press
on June 25, 2012
Federal government provides a $33.8 million
loan to help launch Vermont Health Co-op.
Vermont has had dairy cooperatives since
1895 and its first food co-op, Adamant
Cooperative Store, was established in
1935. It also is home to cooperatives
providing electricity.
Now a group wants to create the state’s
first health insurance cooperative called
Vermont Health Co-op. The federal
government will give the initiative a big
boost — a $33.8 million loan to cover
startup costs and to fund a reserve to
ensure the new insurer has enough money
to pay claims.
The Affordable Care Act, that politically
controversial law whose fate could be d
ecided next week by the U.S. Supreme
Court, included a provision authorizing the
creation of consumer owned and governed,
non-profit health insurance cooperatives as
a way to increase the options for
individuals and small businesses.
Mitchell Fleischer, chairman of the board
launching the new cooperative, says
Vermont, with its long tradition with
cooperatives, seemed like a natural place
to experiment with the health insurance
cooperative concept outlined in the federal
health reform law.
“We think this is going to be very, very
welcome in Vermont,” Fleischer said Friday.
“We expect to carve out a niche.”
“It is like your food co-op or electric co-
op,” he added. “It is answerable to the
people it serves.”
As a cooperative, if income exceeds
expenses, the profits will be returned to
policy holders, either through expanded
coverage or reduced premiums — and
members will make those decisions.
State officials and other insurers offered
neutral comments Friday concerning the
new endeavor, having not yet been privy to
any details about the cooperative. The co-
op, by federal law, couldn’t involve anyone
associated with other insurance companies
or with government.
“It is not a surprise,” Health Reform
Director Robin Lunge said of the
announcement that a cooperative had been
created and funded. “We knew it certainly
was a possibility,” she said. “We are
looking forward to seeing the application.”

About Me

"Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled... away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces." -Etienne de La Boétie *Feel free to copy any posted material. Attributions to writers are recommended, but the commons prevail here.